"Lucky charm!" A make-up brush fell in her hands. Chat played defense around her, watching as she puzzled out this object. He never doubted her plans. She was so decisive, so focused… it was intoxicating. Her pigtails glinted in the sun, almost sparkling a blue color on top of the black. At last, she smiled at him. "Listen up, Kitty, this one's going to be super complicated."

Adrien whistled nonchalantly as he strolled into his fencing practice. He stretched a bit, then turned his attention to his instructor, who was still quite perturbed that an akuma had interrupted yet another of his lessons.

"Alright, students, gather 'round, it's time to go over our parrying skill again," he was starting, when a clatter arose from the direction of the locker room. A rather disheveled-looking Kagami barreled through the door and flushed bright pink. Adrien had never seen her look so off. "Kagami! Do you know what time it is?" their instructor hissed.

"I'm so sorry," she mumbled, "I got… hit by that akuma and only just made it back to the locker room… I promise it will never happen again."

Strange, Adrien thought, she's never been late for practice before…

"Adrien, I promised myself I would never hesitate, and I find myself hesitating."

He tried to make his smile as gentle as possible. "It's alright, Kagami, whatever you need to say, you can trust me."

"I… I like you. A lot. Not just as a friend." His mouth dropped open. "I understand if you need to think about things for a while, but I want to… share everything with you. I don't want there to be secrets between us anymore. I care about you very much."

"Kagami… I…" he floundered a bit before she stepped in.

"Like I said, I don't need an answer right now. I just… needed you to know. I wouldn't want to keep something like that from you; I would never lie to you."

All he could do was nod and give a weak smile as thanks. But his mind was churning possibility after possibility. Could he see himself with Kagami? More and more recently, he realized the answer was yes. He yearned for Ladybug—his brilliant, decisive, powerful, beautiful dark-haired Lady—but Kagami was dear to him. She leaned in for a hug, which he returned with a little pat on her back, before he stepped away, smiled once more, and walked over to where Gorilla was waiting for him with his bushy eyebrows knit together in consternation.

As Adrien buckled his seat belt, he looked back at Kagami. She was just standing there, but still, Adrien couldn't take his eyes off her. Her hair still sparkled in the sun, exactly like…

Wait.

No, that was impossible. Adrien dismissed the idea as quickly as it had popped up.

But the strange thing with impossible ideas is that they're incredibly persistent.

Adrien flipped through the pictures on his phone. They looked so different. Yet, he reasoned within, she was more than capable of coming up with crazy, convoluted plans. Certainly, if she could use a make-up brush and no fewer than twelve other objects to randomly work together and defeat an akuma who was forcing people to do continual back-flips, she would have similar protections on her precious personal identity? And besides, he knew he looked nothing like Adrien when he was Chat Noir, right?

Then again, they behaved so very differently. Kagami was terse, she was so warm. But once again, he thought about himself. Chat was outgoing, ridiculous, and pawsitively hilarious. Adrien loved being a total goofball. Maybe she used her mask to similarly unwind.

No. It was impossible. He'd seen them both, Kagami had been akumatized, multiple times, and what about the dragon miraculous? What about Ryuko?

The answers came to him in a flash of such brilliance, Adrien inwardly congratulated himself. She must have known how close he was coming to her personally and started weaving together elaborate ruses. She probably had asked for help from Rena Rouge. And-why he hadn't noticed sooner, he didn't know—he didn't actually see Ryuko transform. Mirage! It was definitely possible. Plus the whole dragon-bug thing? Really? She'd totally used the dragon miraculous in the past. It was the only possible explanation.

No more secrets, she had said. I would never lie, she had said.

"Plagg," Adrien commanded, "I'm not asking you. I'm telling you."

Plagg didn't even look up from his Nintendo Switch, but one of his ears did twitch toward him. "Sure kid," he grumbled.

"I know you're just going to deny, so let's just skip that step and get straight to the point."

Plagg only halfheartedly paid Adrien any attention. "What are you blathering about?'

"I know Ladybug's identity."

Alright. So he'd pause his game. "Hey, kid, you know that's danger—"

"It's Kagami, isn't it. No, don't answer that. I already know."

Plagg accidentally cataclysmed his Switch. "Ah crap," he growled at the mess he'd made, "I was almost done with that level!"

Adrien mistook Plagg's intense response as an affirmation. "I knew it!"

"Oh kid, you're… well…" Plagg, still miffed about his favorite toy, decided that he'd have to enjoy his second-favorite (teasing Adrien) for the rest of the day. "Yeah." Plagg rolled his eyes and filled his voice with as much sarcasm as he could, "You're right. You're so smart. I can't believe it took you this long."

However, Plagg had forgotten that his chosen was Adrien Agreste, the world's most oblivious boy.

Adrien's heart raced wildly as he dove behind a dumpster to drop his transformation. He ignored Plagg's whiny voice and abandoned him back there by vaulting himself back over the dumpster and racing into the street. "Adrien, what are you doingggg-" he heard trailing behind him, but he didn't care. He knew. He knew everything and he wanted her desperately and nothing anyone could say or do would keep him from her in this moment.

"Ladybug!" he called, banking on her miraculous-enhanced hearing. She was waving goodbye to baby August's mother and had that soft look on her face that just made his heart go wild. As if it could go any wilder, that is. "Ladybug!" he called again, and this time, she looked up with her eyebrows pulling her mask into a little V between her gorgeous eyes.

"Adrien?" she gasped. "Is everything alright?"

He raced to her. Then, feeling bolder than he ever had in his life, he took her hand. She audibly gasped. "Everything is great," he sighed. "You… you're great." He shook his head and tried to regain control of his tongue. "I mean, I just wanted to say thank you and I wanted you to know… that… that…" yeah, controlling his voice wasn't going to work. Not when she was looking up at him like that, from under her giveaway-dark hair.

Her earrings chirped once. "Are you sure everything is ok? You seem… different."

He shook his head and smiled down at her. "It's ok, you don't have to hide behind the mask. You know me. I promise I won't tell anyone."

Her jaw hit the floor. Her knees crumpled. He pulled her up around her waist to prevent her from totally collapsing. "What?" she nearly screamed. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in. She smelled divine. He pressed his cheek to hers and whispered in her ear.

"I know who you are and I need you to know that I love you too." She was shaking in his arms. He leaned back so he could look into those rich blue eyes of hers—so different from when they were unmasked, but then again, his eyes were different as well—and, well, she still hadn't pulled away and she still hadn't said anything, so he slowly leaned toward her, wrapping one hand around her jaw gently, and kissed her. Tentative at first, then she kissed him back, and suddenly her hands were in his hair and her chest was heaving and his arms were pulling her even closer and her toes had left the ground and he was spinning her and there were only two people on the whole planet…

"Adrien," she whispered softly. Her earrings beeped again. His spine shivered as she said his name in recognition.

"Ladybug," he whispered back.

"How did you find me?" she sobbed.

He set her down and wrapped her cheeks with his fingers. "You sure didn't make it easy."

Her earrings started chirping much more insistently. She snapped to attention and fingered them with a gloved hand. "Oh no—" she gasped.

He smiled. "Go ahead and change elsewhere, but I know exactly where to find you."

He leaned in and kissed her again, just as breathless and intoxicating as the first. She'd never kissed him like that before—but he wasn't complaining. They pulled apart and she was smiling and reaching for him with this desperate look of longing in her eyes. "Please do, Adrien," she responded.

He smirked. "But don't think that I'll go easy on you, now."

The final dot on her earring was flashing like crazy. Her eyes crunched again in confusion, but she had no time to ruminate over his words and used her yo-yo to lift herself to the nearest rooftop. He watched her disappear into the Paris skyline, and couldn't help but pump his fist in the air with a hollering cheer.

Author's note: Oh brother what has happened here? I should probably be more careful about when I write and just go to bed... but... well, who knows? *Mommadon throws caution into the wind.* What are your crazy fan theories? Seriously... I need to hear them... I'm not sure how I can get out of this predicament... LOL